Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz‘s time in China could be a point of contention during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate in New York, particularly after recent reports alleged that he may have been misleading about being in the East Asian country around the time of the deadly Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.
Walz has previously stated that he traveled to China for a teaching position in 1989, weeks before the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. He even recalled his time in the country during a 2014 Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing honoring the 25th anniversary of the protests.
“As a young man, I was just going to teach high school in Foshan in Guangdong, and was in Hong Kong in May of ’89,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee said. “And as the events were unfolding, several of us went in. And I still remember the train station in Hong Kong.”
“The opportunity to be in a Chinese high school at that critical time seemed to me to be really important. And it was a very interesting summer to say the least. Because if you recall, as we moved in that summer and further on and the news blackouts and things that went on, you certainly can’t black out news from people if they want to get it.”
Discrepancies in Walz’s account of his travels arose when the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news publication, shared conflicting reports placing the governor in Nebraska around the time of the protests.
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USA TODAY contacted the Harris-Walz campaign on Tuesday but has not received a response.
Photos place Tim Walz in Nebraska in 1989
The Alliance (Neb.) Times-Herald featured a photo of Walz touring a Nebraska National Guard storeroom on May 16, 1989. The photo’s caption says Walz “will take over the job” of staffing the storeroom from a retiring guardsman and “will be moving to Alliance,” Nebraska, CNN reported.
Another newspaper article published by a Nebraska-based outlet in April 1989 reported that Walz planned on traveling to China in early August, a month after the protests ended. Minnesota Public Radio News and APM Reports first reported the possible contradiction.
Walz may have also been misleading about how often he has traveled to China. During a 2016 interview, the governor said he has visited the country “about 30 times.” Additionally, he told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China in 2016 that he went to Hong Kong “dozens and dozens and dozens of times.”
China seemingly has a special place in Walz’s heart as he and his wife, Gwen Walz, were married on June 4, 1994 — the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, according to CNN. The newlyweds then spent their honeymoon taking students on an educational trip to China, something Walz did frequently as a teacher, the outlet reported.
Gwen Walz told the Star-Herald in January 1994 that they got married on the Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary so her husband could “have a date he’ll always remember.”
Republicans call out ‘Tiananmen Tim’ for China trips
Republicans have called out Walz’s relationship with China despite the governor not publicly discussing his travels since joining Harris’ campaign.
“Tiananmen Tim! Funny they’re changing this now – we were planning on calling him out for this at the debate tomorrow night! Anything else you want to fess up to, Tim???,” Jason Miller, a senior advisor to Donald Trump’s campaign, wrote in an X post on Monday in response to a Minnesota Public Radio News article about Walz’s trips to China.
Congressional Republicans have also called Walz’s travels to China under question as House Oversight Chairman James Comer subpoenaed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday for documents related to the governor possibly having ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Regarding Walz’s time in China, Harris’ campaign released a statement to Minnesota Public Radio News saying, “Throughout his career, Governor Walz has stood up to the (Chinese Communist Party), fought for human rights and democracy, and always put American jobs and manufacturing first.”
“Republicans are twisting basic facts and desperately lying to distract from the Trump-Vance agenda: praising dictators, and sending American jobs to China,” the statement continued.
